Trent Reznor Is Displeased
Trent Reznor, Mr. Nine Inch Nails himself, is displeased. Well, he’s usually not in a buoyant state, but now he’s unhappy at a company that he genuinely likes, Apple. Not to long ago, Trent and his pals developed a snappy iPhone App that he’s using to promote his current tour and to make new mobile friends. But Apple’s hypocritical censorship policy is putting a damper on Trent’s most recent update…
…I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and “clean” versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency – because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any “indecent” material for sale – but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film “Scarface” completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes.
How does that make sense? You can buy The Downward F#$&ing Spiral on iTunes, but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says F#$& or C#$&? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about f#$&ing hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone!
Come on Apple, think your policies through and for f#$&’s sake get your app approval scenario together.
Shaking a Baby to death on your iPhone is seemingly OK, but using profanity is not…
Trent, as usual, has a point….
More information on Trent’s Displeasure with Apple.
